Rome II: Total War

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by SoldierOfDarkness

That makes no sense.

Why would a defender have the ability to wait day and night for weather conditions for a better spot when it's the attacker that decides when to attack?

Dude....

Let put it this way.

The defender normally stationed in tents or some sort, agree? And they put out their scout to spot enemy movements, yeah? Once they spot a large army approaching their position, they put on armour, weapons, get on horse and ready to face the enemy?

So why can't they spend an extra 10 seconds to march northward, claim the high ground for themselves, and wait to see the attackers smash uphill to their death? Getting on high ground to defend their position was like the fundamental rule for all war. Is there any rule that require an army of ten thousands to defend a bloody piece of grassland that hold no strategic value?

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

Dude....

Let put it this way.

The defender normally stationed in tents or some sort, agree? And they put out their scout to spot enemy movements, yeah? Once they spot a large army approaching their position, they put on armour, weapons, get on horse and ready to face the enemy?

So why can't they spend an extra 10 seconds to march northward, claim the high ground for themselves, and wait to see the attackers smash uphill to their death? Getting on high ground to defend their position was like the fundamental rule for all war. Is there any rule that require an army of ten thousands to defend a bloody piece of grassland that hold no strategic value?

I should probably point out that it's a game so clearly some relativity is needed in this since battles would take hours or days and not just within a much shorter period of time.

Also in regards to your question about no strategic value General Longstreet asked General Lee, one of the top generals of the American Civil War, the same question about why they were fighting the Union on a ground of their choosing (high ground) in an area that had zero strategic value. So don't lecture or question me about doing weird things when Generals have done weirder things in real life. I don't understand this "mentality" that throughout history generals were these perfect people that did everything perfect. Why did Pompey screw so badly against Caesar when he had literally DOUBLE the men in their final battle against each other? We will never know.

Also, I thought you'd be aware of this but I guess not but Capture points ONLY appear in Sieges, combined naval/land battles for obvious reasons, and "Interception" battles.

The ones we are talking about is when an attacking army catches an army that is currently in the "forced march" position.

The capture point is to represent the Defenders being caught out of position and hence forced to defend their baggage train.

I've fought a battle where an enemy army was simply on standby so when I attacked they immediately moved to a higher ground because they were not "caught out of position"

Therefore the defenders should not be given a free pass because they were in the forced march position that literally doubles their movement points on the map which is significant.

So don't want a capture point? Don't get intercepted and be careful on how you use the forced march. IMO I don't see any issues with it. The AI forms up a decent battle line in front of the capture point against me. Whenever I'm entering hostile territory with enemy armies nearby I move slowly and leave enough movement points to fortify before the end of the turn.

[Destined_Fate]

I'm still waiting for a mod to convert 1 turn to 1 month so it takes 12 turns before my General ages a year instead of the current 1 turn = 1 year. >_>

[Tiberium Wolf]

Aghrr... a turn takes so long with so many AI and the damn game is so buggy. I can't play more than a few of turns before games freezes. I wonder when they will release the 2nd patch. I can't believe they release this shitty buggy version of the game.

[Hoaviet]

Ha you think solo is slow, man have you tried COOP mode, the AI are 5 times more slow haha.

[barcode120x]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Aghrr... a turn takes so long with so many AI and the damn game is so buggy. I can't play more than a few of turns before games freezes. I wonder when they will release the 2nd patch. I

Yeah, turn times suck, but if you have a pretty good PC it's not so long, I think mine clocks out at 1 minute or so, which is still quite long. It stats to speed up again much later in the turns when factions start to get destroyed. Patches are every Friday. There was one this past Monday regarding crappy frame rates to fix it. I have yet to test it but tbh it doesn't look promising based on the patch notes. It said it fixes the frame rates for those that have 15 fps...which is kinda dumb, why not fix the whole thing haha.

Overall, I still have high hopes for the upcoming patches. A majority of the people seem to say that the game will be as good as the reviews give it within the next month or two after the patches come out to fix it.

[MrTerrorist]

Second Extra Credits video is out.

[barcode120x]

Patch 2 is now BETA. You are able to download it via the TW Rome 2 main forums and install it yourself "at your own risk." Quite funny they do that but it's very smart on their part. They're trying to keep up with their response of "weekly patches" in addition to consumer plaints...so they come out with a huge patch but put it in beta for those that want to try it. If anyone has complaints about the major changes, CA can simply say "you downloaded it at your own risk" lolz. But hey, I ain't complaining cuz there are a LOT of fixes in that patch that I like

Technical and Performance Issues

Campaign performance optimisations.
Campaign AI round time improvements (greatest effect during early game).
A new "Limited" option has been added to the "Show AI Player Moves" settings in Single Player an Multiplayer Campaign modes, this enables the player to see all movement of enemy factions, all movement within the players regions, and all movement within sea that the player has ports in during the AI turns.
Improved AI recruitment decisions in Campaign modes. Further improvements planned for subsequent patches.
Pathfinding optimisation on the Campaign Map.
Fix for "Level of Detail" distances scaling incorrectly when the "Field of View" is changed which reduces the chance of the "Intelligent Zoom" [N] key, causing "zombie like” low quality textures on unit faces in battles.
A new warning message has been added to loading screen to inform the player when graphics memory is running low, and the game is downgrading the players graphics settings. This can be overriden, allowing the game to use system memory for graphics (VRAM) by ticking the "Unlimited video memory" option in the graphics menu.
Increased the frame rate and reduced frame stuttering in battles on certain GPUs.
Improved compatibility for graphics cards with multiple GPUs.
Added earlier Multiplayer Campaign resyncronisation detection, upon loading save games which allows resyncronisation in more cases.
More conservative out-of-the-box graphics settings and resolution for DirectX 10 and 11 on Mobile GPUs
Improved the processing speed of the default deployment placement, reducing battle loading times on some battle maps.
Fixed battle crash bug caused by the default deployment placement.
Crash fix for when the player placed the mouse over a garrison force of a region in Campaign mode.
Fix for crash loading save games that were created on the "settlement captured" screen in Campaign modes.
Fix for a crash when holding the [SHIFT] and [CTRL] keys down, and selecting a unit card, when no unit cards where previously selected in Campaign and Battle modes.
Fix for crash caused by forming a Confederation in Campaign modes.
Some desyncronisations have been fixed in multiplayer city / port assault battles.
Crash fix for when multiple AI reinforcements arrive in a single player siege battle in Campaign mode.
Fix for crash when selecting Custom Battle mode after fighting several different Multiplayer battles.
Fix for a crash in 4v4 custom or multiplayer battles caused by the battle AI.
Fix for crash when cancelling a game request for a password protected game whilst in a Multiplayer battle lobby.
Fix some crashes in multiplayer campaign mode, when one player quit the game, it would cause the other player to crash.
Fixed a Multiplayer crash which happened when a client joined a lobby and was being allocated to the wrong slot.
Fix for a very rare crash when launching a new campaign.
Fixed rare battlefield loading lockup.
Fix for a rare crash caused by animal handlers in battles.
Fix for crash that happens when AI unit triggers raise banner special ability when no human units are selected in battles.

Gameplay Improvements

Reduced infantry run speed, charge speed and acceleration in battles.
The low level casualty moral penalties have been significantly reduced in battles.
Improved balancing for Food and Squalor in Campaign Mode.
Campaign AI is more likely to make a stand when defending its final settlement, but may still seek out another home, if they fear losing the final battle.
Encampments battles are no longer incorrectly merged with Coastal battles, which lead to forts floating in the air when a friendly navy reinforced an army in the Fortification stance.
Improved ship movement speeds in battles.
Shock cavalry run speed and charge speed have been increased in battles.
Increased flanking morale penalties.
Added icons to indicate activity in the Technology and Faction screens during a campaign.
Fix for the boarding/ramming button which showed the incorrect state in certain circumstances in battles.
Fix for a bug that sometimes made it impossible to exchange units between a transported land force and another land force on the Campaign map.
Fix for armies on the sea getting stuck in patrol stance in Campaign modes.
Fixed splitting an embedded army from a navy which sometimes caused the player to get stuck in the Prologue Campaign.
Some missions in single player and multiplayer Campaign have been fixed and now execute correctly.
When a settlement is captured via a siege battle, with a friendly naval fleet blockading its port, the ownership of the port is now changed correctly to the friendly navy fleet on capture.
Fix for AI taking inappropriate sized siege equipment into battle when the user changed the settlement wall height, via the map selection settings, in Custom Battle mode.
Fix for defending armies under AI control grouping together at the edge of their deployment zone, during Ambush battles when the player choses to wait before attacking them.
Improved AI and scripting in the Raphia Historical Battle.
Fixed a bug preventing the player from progressing in The Invasion of Samnium prologue chapter, if they had spent all of their funds before being instructed to recruit a General (and therefore having no funds to do so).
The Attribute increases for an agent accompanying an army now activate its associated effects on the general of that army in Campaign modes.
Improved AI collision detection with Deployables in battle.
In Multiplayer Campaign mode, one player can no longer cancel recruitment during the other players turn.
The order of events leading up to the Battle of Bovianum in the prologue have been re-scripted. The player now gets multiple turns to construct siege equipment.
Fixed issues with not enough time being given for certain advisor lines to play in different languages in the prologue.
Fix for units floating in the air while climbing siege towers in battle, when the tower is placed on a slope.
Attacking siege ladders will no longer clip through the gate house in the siege on Bovianum battle during The Invasion of Samnium chapter in Prologue Campaign.
The victory screen in Multiplayer Campaign mode now shows the correct title for both players.
The Basilica of Vulcan religious building now applies the correct bonus to recruitment cost reduction in Campaign Mode.
Added level indicators to the Sanctuary of Austro & Sanctuary of Fraujaz shrines in Campaign mode and the Encyclopaedia.
Fix for settlement expansion trapping / blocking units movement on the campaign map in very rare cases.
Improved the terrain in a small Barbarian city battle map.
Minor bug fixes for Roman and Barbarian siege battle maps.
During battles, players are no longer able to un-pause the game while in the options menus.

Usability improvements

In Campaign mode, exempting a province from tax will no longer incorrectly adjust the food number in the province info panel left side of the screen.
Improved multiplayer lobby discovery, reducing the chance of finding *multiplayer lobbies with the wrong battle type.
Removed the red tint from the sky in battles.
Fix for "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" achievement failing to unlock when its requirements were met in some situations.
The "Quaestor" achievement should now unlock correctly, when completing the Prologue campaign
Fixed the inability to select the previous faction, when an army is automatically loaded due to a battle type change during battle setup.
Improved the clarity of stats displayed for Slaves Economic Effect when placing the mouse over "Slaves" in the Province Details panel on the Campaign map.
Fix for rare cases of broken save games in Campaign mode.
Fix for Campaign mode bug, where a hostile agent and the players' ship became stuck in the same position, with neither one able to move.
Fix for very rare agent pathfinding issue, which caused the game progression to become impossible in Campaign modes.
Removed the ability to loading the wrong type of units into a battle from a saved army pre-set in Custom Battle mode.
In Multiplayer battle setup, unit restrictions related to "Battle type" are no longer desynchronised between the host and client, so only the correct units can be chosen.
Defending armies in an Ambush Battle can no longer load an army containing *Fixed Artillery and other Siege Equipment.
Fixed the tooltip displayed when placing the mouse over the garrison in enemy settlements, while the settlement is under siege.
The Public Order "Change per turn" stat is now displayed as the sum of all of its "Contributing Factors" on the Province Info panel in Campaign mode.
Right-clicking on the Aggressive, Balanced and Protective stance buttons when Autoresolving a battle in campaign mode will now take the player to the Encyclopedia, where these stances are explained in more detail.
More detailed descriptions added to the tooltips for the "Occupy, Loot and Raze" buttons after successfully capturing a settlement on the Campaign map.
Improved icons for Province Effects in Campaign mode.
Fixed an error with uploading stats when a multiplayer battle was ended prematurely.
The "Force March" movement effect on the campaign map (looks like a whirlwind) are now correctly removed from the screen when the AI move their army.
Correction to the Assault Hexeres unit card in the Parthia faction during battles, which had no colour mask and appeared black.
The buttons to change pages in the Leaderboards menu have been fixed, so more players can be seen on the Leaderboards.
The Provinces list in Campaign mode can now be scrolled with the mouse wheel.
Units in a recruitment queue, in a province with its capital under siege, now have an "infinity sign" icon to indicate that the "turns to recruit" is infinite while the siege is maintained in Campaign mode.
In the "Controls" menu under the "Settings" option in the main menu, when the player modifies the keyboard controls, and saves them, the new name for these controls is now replaces the "Classic Total War" name.
Added a tooltip to say "Left-click to remove unit from recruitment queue" for units that are queued for hire in Campaign mode.
Added a tooltip to make ruined buildings more obvious in Campaign mode.
Added tooltips to "Weather" and "Time of Day" settings in the Custom Battle menu.
Fixes and corrections for text in the encyclopaedia have been made.
Minor text and grammar corrections in Campaign Modes.
Fix for some German text not fitting into the available text space in the campaign mode user interface.
Improved text formatting in the Objectives panel in Campaign mode.
Added some localisation text fixes for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish and Turkish.
Fixed some missing text on the Diplomacy screen in Campaign modes.
Added white outline to Armoured Legionaries unit cards in battle.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Yeah, the beta is a good way to keep their promise of weekly patches without needing it to be perfect.
I play at the lowest possible setting, so any performance improvement is welcome.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by barcode120x

Yeah, turn times suck, but if you have a pretty good PC it's not so long, I think mine clocks out at 1 minute or so, which is still quite long. It stats to speed up again much later in the turns when factions start to get destroyed. Patches are every Friday. There was one this past Monday regarding crappy frame rates to fix it. I have yet to test it but tbh it doesn't look promising based on the patch notes. It said it fixes the frame rates for those that have 15 fps...which is kinda dumb, why not fix the whole thing haha.

Overall, I still have high hopes for the upcoming patches. A majority of the people seem to say that the game will be as good as the reviews give it within the next month or two after the patches come out to fix it.

My pc is too old. It's an E6600. :/ No money to buy a new rig.

Originally Posted by barcode120x

Patch 2 is now BETA. You are able to download it via the TW Rome 2 main forums and install it yourself "at your own risk." Quite funny they do that but it's very smart on their part. They're trying to keep up with their response of "weekly patches" in addition to consumer plaints...so they come out with a huge patch but put it in beta for those that want to try it. If anyone has complaints about the major changes, CA can simply say "you downloaded it at your own risk" lolz. But hey, I ain't complaining cuz there are a LOT of fixes in that patch that I like

Keep up with their response of "weekly patches" by releasing BETA patches is NOT the way. Seriously they should admit that they are incompetent and apologize.

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Yeah, the beta is a good way to keep their promise of weekly patches without needing it to be perfect.
I play at the lowest possible setting, so any performance improvement is welcome.

It's a good way for them to get a lot of feedback too.

In any case from what I hear it's a pretty good patch.

Keep up with their response of "weekly patches" by releasing BETA patches is NOT the way. Seriously they should admit that they are incompetent and apologize.

Technically speaking they already apologized and thus are working hard to iron out the issues.

To say they're incompetent is a little silly. Computer games unfortunately are a lot more complex than console games. No matter what you do there're a million different computer rigs that they have to optimize the system for. When you add in a complex game like Total War, it's pretty difficult to begin with.

It's why attitudes like you are pushing devs towards Consoles. With consoles it's just the "one rig" they have to work with and therefore wouldn't have to listen to armchair people who say they can do a better job or that they suck.

[barcode120x]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Seriously they should admit that they are incompetent and apologize.

As Soldier said, they did apologize. If they didn't give out beta patches what should they do then? Apologizing again won't fix the game issues. Make it a LIVE patch and have everyone complain the patch is broken? Like I said, was smart on their part for making it beta patch first, so they can fix up any issues and make it perfect, or near perfect when it goes live next week. As for us consumers, we won't have to cry at them for giving us a broken patch since it is labeled as beta patch.

Then again, the downside to this is that it means NEW patches come out every 2 weeks instead of every week (first week is the beta version, second week is the live version) UNLESS at the end of the second week they release the beta patch for the NEXT patch, which I doubt.

[Tiberium Wolf]

I know there is a lot of diff rigs and there will always be some bugs. But if you look at the fixes most of them are to fix bugs that totally crash the game or cripple the game (and it isn't just a few, it's a lot). At this statue they shouldn't even released the game in first place. Seems like they didn't even test the game before the release.

[Hoaviet]

That new patch made the AI turns in solo campaign sooo much faster.

[NoemiChan]

Bugs begot bugs.

[barcode120x]

Originally Posted by Hoaviet

That new patch made the AI turns in solo campaign sooo much faster.

Yeah, totally made a difference and they fixed the campaign mode FPS issues for the most part, could be better but I'm happy. Thing I'm mainly waiting for now is a fix on AI difficulty.

[Destined_Fate]

Originally Posted by barcode120x

Yeah, totally made a difference and they fixed the campaign mode FPS issues for the most part, could be better but I'm happy. Thing I'm mainly waiting for now is a fix on AI difficulty.

Eh... I think a better bet is begging Darth to return to modding and release us a Darth Mod for Rome 2 or for them to hire him to fix what they couldn't.

[barcode120x]

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Eh... I think a better bet is begging Darth to return to modding and release us a Darth Mod for Rome 2 or for them to hire him to fix what they couldn't.

Truth. I miss him

[Chaos2Frozen]

Part 3

[barcode120x]

Wow, and here I thought that dealing with the senate and other "houses" while playing Rome didn't matter...it did. "Civil War" erupted at my main capital (Rome) and it literally spawned at LEAST 15 nearly full armies of Praetorians...triple or quadruple my own.

This just got serious